Beef Sustainability Facts 042718-07 041618-06

Sustainability_FactSheet_Ver3.pdf
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4/27/18
10:33 AM
BEEF SUSTAINABILITY FACTS
WHAT’S SUSTAINABILITY?
Producing safe, nutritious beef while balancing environmental
stewardship, social responsibility and economic viability.
%
of Beef Farms
and Ranches are
Family Owned
of U.S. Farms
and Ranches
Own Beef
Cattle
OTHER
9%
Typical U.S. Cattle Lifecycle
Cow-calf
DIET
Grass
Other Humaninedible Plants
Finishing
Mostly Grass
Other Humaninedible Plants
Grain
Other Humaninedible Plants
DIET
6 - 10 Months
DURATION
Stocker/backgrounder
DURATION
DIET
2 - 6 Months
DURATION
4 - 6 Mos. Grain
- Or -
6 - 10 Mos. Grass
C
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CMY
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Compared to 1977, today’s beef
farmers and ranchers produce the same
amount of beef with 33% fewer cattle.
How’d they do it?
Better Animal
Health & Welfare
1977
Y
Same Beef, Fewer Cattle
Better Animal Nutrition
33%
NOW
M
Fewer
Cattle
Improved
efficiency and
animal well-being
mean a 16% lower
carbon footprint
and fewer natural
resources used for
every pound of
beef produced.
Better Animal Genetics
8%
18
%
More with Less
U.S. farmers and ranchers
produce 18% of the world’s
beef with only 8% of the
world’s cattle.
Fewer Cattle,
Less Emissions
U.S. beef has one of the lowest carbon
footprints in the world, 10 to 50 times
lower than some nations.
Greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions from cattle
2.2%
2.0%
only account for 2%
of U.S. GHG emissions.
BEEF
LANDFILL
40.9%
25.3%
29.7%
TRANSPORTATION ELECTRICITY
OTHER
SOURCES
Sustainability_FactSheet_Ver3.pdf
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4/27/18
10:33 AM
BEEF SUSTAINABILITY FACTS
The Stomach for the Job
A cow’s stomach can be
40 to 50 gallons in volume
Cattle have 4 stomach compartments, and the largest is the
rumen, which is why cattle are
referred to as ruminant animals.
That’s the
size of your
bath tub!
3 1
2
RUMEN
21 3
RUMEN
4
4
It is naturally filled with trillions of
microbes that can break down
human-inedible plants.
Cattle Upcycling
Super-power
Energy
From the
Sun
Upcycle
The rumen microbes give cattle their
upcycling super-power – cattle upgrade
plants of little to no nutritional value to people
to high-quality protein, micronutrients, and
Humanother important products.
Inedible Plants
High-quality
Protein, Leather
& Other Products
Going Against the Grain
10%
90%
FORAGE &
PLANT
LEFTOVERS
GRAIN
Lifetime
Diet for
Grain-Finished
Cattle
Whether grass- or
grain-finished, most of
what cattle eat in their
life is grass, and less
than 10% of the lifetime
feed of grain-finished
cattle is grain.
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Sustainability is
about balancing
multiple economic,
social, and
environmental
issues at once,
while recognizing
tradeoffs.
ENVIRONMENT
ECONOMIC
SOCIAL
1.19 lb.
FEED
PROTEIN
EQUALS
BEEF
PROTEIN
Grain-finished beef
cattle provide 19% more
human-edible protein
than they consume.
Beef Cattle eat
7-9%
Corn Fed to Cattle =
2% of U.S. cropland acres
0.3% of total U.S. land area
UPCYCLE
1 lb.
of U.S. corn
production which
covers approximately
6.5 million acres
Sustainability is Bigger
Than Carbon Footprints
Relative
differences in
carbon footprints
between animal
vs. plant foods
don’t add up to
significant GHGemissions
differences at the
national level.
For example, what would be the consequences
if every American went vegan?
Insufficient
U.S. GHG nutrients
to
emissions feed
the U.S.
2.6% lower population
Increased
use of
synthetic
fertilizer
Increased
soil
erosion
Beef is a Nutrient-rich Food
One 3-ounce cooked serving of a composite,
trimmed, retail beef cut contributes less than
10% of calories to a 2000-calorie diet, yet it
supplies more than 10% of the Daily Value for
10 essential nutrients including protein, iron,
zinc and many B vitamins.
Reference list for Quick Facts on Beef Sustainability:
Broocks, A. et al.; Does grass-finished beef leave a lower carbon footprint than grain-finished beef? Available:
beefresearch.org/beefsustainability.aspx (Tough Question #6)
Capper, 2011. J. Animal Sci. 89:4249-4261.
CAST, 1999. Animal agriculture and global food supply. Task force report No. 135 July 1999.
Herrero et al., 2013. Proc. Natl. Aca. Sci. 110:20888-20893.
NASEM, 2016. Nutrient Requ. of Beef Cattle. 8th revised ed. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/19014
USDA 2012 Ag Census. Available at: https://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2012/#full_report
USDA-ARS Nutrient Database, SR28, NDB#13364, available at: https://www.ars.usda.gov/nea/bhnrc/ndl
USDA-ERS, 2018. Major Land Uses. Available at: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/major-land-uses.aspx
USDA-NASS Quick Stats Tools. Available at: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Quick_Stats/
US EPA Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2014. Available at:
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-04/documents/us-ghg-inventory-2016-main-text.pdf
UN FAOSTAT database. Available at: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home
White and Hall, 2017. Proc. Natl. Aca. Sci. 114:E10301-E10308.
Funded by Beef Farmers
and Ranchers